Candlekeep
Candlekeep is a many towered fortress library that stands on a crag, looking down upon the Sea of Swords. The library is filled with books and scrolls of knowledge, and it was the home of the great seer Alaundo, who foresaw the coming of the Bhaalspawn. To gain entry to the halls of wisdom, a visitor must gift the library collection with a new tome of immense value. The shrewd gatekeepers accept tomes of no less than 1,000gp. The path to Candlekeep is called the Way of the Lion. Over the years, Candlekeep has used two badges at various times (falling out of favor and being revived, overlapping each other, several times): • a vertical flat-white-hued human right hand, fingers towards the viewer, clutching a rolled-up, horizontal white scroll, the scroll being outlined all around with blue (what we in the real world sometimes call "electric blue") • two flat-white long fingered human or elven left hands, the uppermost at top left and the lower one at bottom right, passing a book (in the center) between them. The book is rectangular, dun brown, and oriented with top at upper right, open side down the lower right side, and bottom at lower left. It is plain (no title or illustration on its covers) Candlekeep also has a formal coat-of-arms, consisting of: An midnight blue (darker than royal blue, but with a lighter blue "edge" as if moonlight is lighting it "from behind," all around) shield. The shield has straight sides and top, a symmetrical center-point curved bottom, and is "taller" (longer, vertically) than the normal heraldic shield dimensions. It has a border of cream-hued books, all around, each one unique in dimensions and appearance, none bearing titles or visible writing, and each one touching the next. On the shield is a motto (yes, ON the shield, winding across it just above the bottom point, not wrapped around the shield or beneath/below it) on a scarlet ribbon, that reads: "Write and share the written, and so cheat time." Above this is a large, unfurled scroll, cream-hued and blank, and crossed atop it are a quill pen (point at lower left, feather-plume at upper right, quill being black and feather being blue with a white tip and black bars, rather like a real-world blue jay feather) and a plain steel-gray sword (hilt at upper left and point at lower right. The sword is broken into two pieces, with jagged edges that would visibly mesh to form a whole if pushed together, but they are separated by the quill pen, which lies "across" the path of the sword in its own cleared channel (yep, the pen is mightier than the sword). At certain times in the past, these arms have displayed certain lone runes in red on the scroll, but Candlekeep does not use them at this time, and does not explain what they were/are or why they were used and are not used now (magic is obviously suspected, but there are fierce debates about it being linked to Mystra, Oghma, Deneir, or other deities or non-divine forces or writings or individuals). The Avowed The Avowed is the name the monks of Candlekeep call themselves. As of 1372 DR, the Avowed are ruled by the Keeper of the Tomes, Ulraunt, and his assistant, First Reader Tethtoril. The small community of monks and scholars residing in Candlekeep mainly favors Oghma, the god of knowledge, as well as the deities Deneir, Gond, and Milil. Category:Libraries Category:Locations on the Sword Coast